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Python

Anthony Grodowski
Anthony Grodowski
4,902 Points
Posted by Anthony Grodowski
Anthony Grodowski
4,902 Points

How does sum(self) work?

I was wondering how is it possible that in @property in 

from dice import D20


class Hand(list):
    def __init__(self, list_sum=None):
        self.list_sum = list_sum

    @classmethod
    def roll(cls, times):
        list_sum = cls()
        for _ in range(times):
            list_sum.append(D20())
        return list_sum

    @property
    def total(self):
        return sum(self)


a= Hand.roll(2)
print(1, a)
print(2, a.total)

returns summed value of two D20.value(), even tho we provided only D20(). How does python know that by saying return sum(self) we want to recieve value attributes?

1 Answer

Josh Keenan
Josh Keenan
20,315 Points
Josh Keenan
Josh Keenan
20,315 Points

Hand is inheriting from list, you can call the sum operation on a list as sum() takes an iterable, your hand class inherits from list meaning sum will treat it the same way it would a list

Anthony Grodowski
Anthony Grodowski
4,902 Points
Anthony Grodowski
Anthony Grodowski
4,902 Points

Thanks Josh for your answer but it's not excatly the case. I get that my class instance is a list and my class can use list methods because it inherits from that. The thing that concerns me is:

1 [<dice.D20 object at 0x7f1444cc0f98>, <dice.D20 object at 0x7f1444c20080>]     

2 9

that's the output from this file and I don't get how python goes through these 2 objects in a list and takes from them D20().value